The government’s relief fund caters primarily to the very poor, but there is another segment of society which comprises small business owners and service providers like rickshaw drivers, parchoon farosh (retailers) and roadside vendors who have been put out of work due to the lockdown. These people don’t have the privilege to ‘work from home,’ let alone find work online, which has partly to do with the nature of their work. 

Then there are marginalised communities like the trans-genders who have been badly hit by the situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’ve to practice social distancing, which has affected our livelihood,” says Shehzadi, a trans-woman from Township, ruefully. “Already, we were without many social privileges. This [coronavirus] has ruined us.”

Living in a dingy little room, which she shares with three other transpeople, Shehzadi is one of the many in the community who have been overlooked by the society and the government in the discussion on providing food and financial aid. “Everyone is looking to give ration to the poor who are based in slum areas, but no one has thought about us,” she says, adding that their employment opportunities were already scarce, but the outbreak has brought life to a halt completely.

“Another problem for our community is that a majority of us don’t have CNIC, which makes us ineligible for the Prime Minister’s Ehsas programme,” says Shabnam, a roommate of Shehzadi.

Shabnam relates that earlier she and her colleagues would stand at traffic signals in the city and beg for alms, but now the police do not let them be. “We also have to pay the room rent, utility bills and, more importantly, we need to buy food.”

She urges the district government to take their community’s issues into account, and give them financial aid.

The trans- community already exists on the margins of society, eking out a living through begging and dancing at private functions and, in some cases, from sex work. The lockdown has put them at a heightened risk of poverty and ill-health.

Talking to TNS, a spokesperson for the city district government said the administration had recently distributed ration packs among transgender people. He too mentions that one cannot claim financial aid from the Ehsas programme without a CNIC because “it is based on data verification from the NADRA, the FBR and other government departments.”

Meanwhile, a large number of low-income service providers such as rickshaw drivers, cobblers, waiters, restaurant workers, and daily wagers are also hit hard by the lockdown. Lately, though, relaxation has been given to some of these service providers, many are still left to grieve.

In Lahore, over 500 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed so far and nine people have died from the disease. Though the number is (thankfully) low, it has rung the alarm bells as the virus can spread if social distancing is not observed. For Junaid Ahmed, a waiter at a local hotel, it’s “a matter of life and death.”

He says he has to feed a seven-member family but there is no way he can do so now, because he has been rendered out of work. “I am 16 years old, and don’t have a CNIC, so I cannot hope to get the government’s financial aid,” he says.

Umer, who has an artificial jewelry stall outside a grocery store, says he doesn’t have any savings to survive on. “All the money I had is spent. Now I am desperately looking for some kind of job to feed my family.”

So far he has not received any aid from the government.

Many skilled workers, food sellers, drivers and household help are suddenly wondering how they’ll pay rent or buy food. The lockdown continues to disproportionately hurt the marginalised communities due to the loss of livelihood as many face lack of food and other basic amenities. The government has promised relief funds but there are tens of thousands in immediate need of help who might not get any of those.